During the academic year, Beyah-Vida Garcia’s weeks are full with classes for her double major in marketing and management and minor in Spanish. Between studies, she is busy with extracurriculars and works multiple jobs on campus. By the weekend, Garcia volunteers at Midtown Market, a grocery-style food pantry on the east side of Cleveland that provides access to healthy food and personal care items to residents in need.
“Being able to help people out with just a few hours of my time every other week is really rewarding to me,” says the rising fourth-year Case Western Reserve University student.
Volunteer work
Through the Center for Civic Engagement and Learning at Case Western Reserve, Garcia started helping at local pantries with the Hunger Network in the fall of 2022. But, when it came to volunteering at Midtown Market (pictured below), it “resonated with me,” she says. “I come from a lower income family, so the idea of having a market where you get to choose the items you need instead of being handed a basket of goods is more dignified to me.”
After her first day volunteering at Midtown Market, Garcia says she felt so fond of the work and the people there that she asked the manager if she could come in on her own time to volunteer.
“She said, ‘yes, anytime,’” Garcia says. “So I definitely took advantage of that and started coming in on my Saturdays.”
At the market, Garcia is paired with community members to help them shop and keep track of what items they bag.
“I like Midtown Market because you get to interact and talk with people,” Garcia says. “This is what community service is all about, actually getting to know the community,”
Garcia, who is from Bellevue, Ohio, says the market reminded her of similar programs she’s seen rolled out in her hometown.
“I feel very lucky to be able to attend Case [Western Reserve],” she says. “So, the idea of helping people in the community out—even in the smallest way—is the least I could do.”
In the Classroom
One of the deciding factors for Garcia to attend Case Western Reserve in Cleveland was because of the diverse community.
“I didn't want to go to another place where I felt like an outlier,” she says. “The diversity of the school definitely pulled me in.”
She also appreciated the single-door admission policy, which allows students to explore the university's entire catalog of academic offerings, without having to individually apply for each program.
“A lot of people are able to explore what they want to study early on,” she says. “It’s nice not being restricted to this or that, and, also double majoring is a lot easier of a process to go through than it would be at another school.”
Garcia always knew she wanted to study business, but wasn’t sure in which area, until she took the MGMT 201 course: Contemporary Business and Communication with Weatherhead School of Management Assistant Professor in the Department of Design & Innovation Jim Gilmore.
“That class changed my mindset and inspired me to pursue what I actually want to do,” she says, “and that’s marketing and management.”
Gilmore, like most professors at Weatherhead, has had experience working in the corporate world. He started his career at Procter & Gamble.
“He talked about his experiences there and I've had accounting professors who have talked about how they used to work with these huge companies before too,” she says. “That's what I really like about the classes, as well as the fact that they are a little bit smaller, so being able to create relationships with the professors is easy.”
Outside of Class
When she’s not in class or volunteering, Garcia enjoys playing intramural basketball, taking part in the Ohio Student Association and she is the vice president of finance and fundraising for Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority.
Garcia also works multiple jobs between being a student helper at Kelvin Smith Library, a Safe Ride dispatcher, and a study abroad ambassador, where she encourages students to study abroad and is a resource for those who want to find out more information about the experience.
Last summer, Garcia was able to attend a digital marketing class abroad in Madrid, Spain (pictured), for one month with the help of a scholarship from the Office of Education Abroad.
“It was amazing,” she says. “I learned different ways of applying marketing techniques and looking at marketing from another culture’s point of view.”
This summer, Garcia has an internship with Mars Petcare in Franklin, Tennessee, where she is working as a sales intern in partnership with the Walmart line manager on the sales team.
Once she returns to campus for the fall semester, she says she will continue her volunteer work at Midtown Market.
“I really like doing this,” she says. “The people there encourage me and the gratitude I receive also makes me feel really happy.”